VETASSESS is raising the price of its professional skills assessments from 9 September 2026. If VETASSESS receives your application before that date, you pay today’s price. That makes Tuesday 8 September the last full day at the current rates.
The increase is small — about 4.6%, or A$50 on a full skills assessment. The more useful question is whether it is worth rushing to beat the date. Usually it is not, and the same price list shows why.
What it costs
| Service | Now* | From 9 Sep* | From 9 Sep, with GST | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Skills Assessment | $1,096 | $1,146 | $1,260.60 | +$50 |
| Priority Processing (added on top) | $825 | $863 | $949.30 | +$38 |
| Points Test Advice (if VETASSESS is not your assessing authority) | $311 | $325 | $357.50 | +$14 |
| Subclass 485 assessment | $416 | $436 | $479.60 | +$20 |
| Subclass 485 — review | $265 | $277 | $304.70 | +$12 |
| Subclass 485 — reassessment | $379 | $396 | $435.60 | +$17 |
| Post-485 assessment (same occupation) | $852 | $891 | $980.10 | +$39 |
| Review — qualification only | $340 | $356 | $391.60 | +$16 |
| Review — employment only | $609 | $637 | $700.70 | +$28 |
| Review — qualification and employment | $913 | $955 | $1,050.50 | +$42 |
| Reassessment (within 12 months) | $745 | $779 | $856.90 | +$34 |
| Appeal (within 90 days) | $1,082 | $1,132 | $1,245.20 | +$50 |
| Renewal (within 3 years) | $473 | $495 | $544.50 | +$22 |
| Reissue of your outcome letter | $75 | $78 | $85.80 | +$3 |
* Prices exclude GST, as published. VETASSESS adds 10% where you are an Australian resident for tax purposes.
So a standard assessment is $1,260.60 from inside Australia, or $1,146 if you are not an Australian tax resident. Add Priority Processing and the first figure becomes $2,209.90.
Is it worth rushing to beat 8 September?
Look at the size of what you are racing for. It is $50, or $55 once GST is on it.
Now look at the other end of the same table. If your assessment comes back negative, a review costs $391.60 if it is only about your qualification, $700.70 if it is about your employment, and $1,050.50 if it is about both. A reassessment is $856.90. An appeal is $1,245.20. Those are the GST-inclusive figures from 9 September.
So the review of a rushed application costs seven to nineteen times what rushing saved you.
That does not mean ignore the date. If your application is genuinely ready — documents gathered, employment references in the form VETASSESS asks for, the right occupation nominated — then submitting before 9 September is free money and you should do it.
It means the deadline is a reason to finish, not a reason to submit early. The parts of a skills assessment that most often produce a negative outcome are the parts people rush: employment evidence that does not show the required duties, a reference letter that is too vague, or a nominated occupation that is close to your job title but not close to your actual duties.
One practical note on timing. The single thing most likely to make 8 September impossible is a document you need from an employer or a university overseas. If you are waiting on a statement of service, a transcript or a translation, start that today, because it is the only part of this you cannot control.
What is not changing
Not everything on the VETASSESS list moved. The increase applies to professional and general occupations. Several things sit outside it entirely.
If your occupation is a trade, none of this applies to you. VETASSESS says so directly, and the trade fee page confirms it. Pathway 1 still costs $1,120 for the documentary evidence stage, $2,000 for the technical assessment and $2,200 for the practical assessment. Pathway 2 still costs $1,120 and $900. Nothing there has a September deadline, so if someone tells you to hurry, check which list your occupation is on first.
The help-before-you-apply services did not move either. The VETASSESS announcement lists Skills Assessment Support among the services going up, but in the published schedule its prices are the same before and after 9 September: $282 for a consultation with an applicant, $191 for the Document Checking Service, and $391 for a consultation with a migration agent or lawyer.
So the price of checking held while the price of the assessment and the price of a review both went up. It is only worth spending if you have a specific doubt — whether your degree matches the occupation you are nominating, or whether your work history will be counted as highly relevant rather than merely related. On a straightforward case it is money you do not need to spend.
What to do now
If you are working with a registered migration agent, the useful question to ask them this month is not “should I rush?” It is “is my employment evidence strong enough for the occupation we have nominated?” That is the question the fee schedule is really pointing at, because every line on the what-if-it-goes-wrong path went up alongside the headline price.
This is general information, not migration or legal advice. Prices and dates were accurate at publication and can change. Confirm the current fee on the VETASSESS website before you pay, and check your own tax residency with the ATO or your accountant before assuming GST does or does not apply to you.
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